Ten found guilty of online harassment targeting Brigitte Macron

A court in Paris has convicted ten people for engaging in the cyber-bullying of Brigitte Macron, the wife of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.

The defendants faced charges of disseminating fabrications regarding her gender and sexual orientation, in addition to posting defamatory statements about the couple's 24-year age gap.

The court delivered conditional custodial sentences of a maximum of eight months to the convicted individuals. The complete verdict has still to be made public.

A persistent unfounded claim alleging that Brigitte Macron is a trans woman has been in circulation since her husband's rise to the presidency in 2017.

This recent ruling in France comes as the Macrons pursuing a defamation lawsuit in the United States of America against conservative commentator Candace Owens, who has also voiced analogous false narratives about the first lady's gender.

Their legal filing states that Owens brushed aside substantial counter-evidence that refuted her assertions in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists.

Owens has frequently reiterated these allegations on her podcast and social media channels, and in March 2024 proclaimed that she would bet her whole career on her insistence that Mrs. Macron is biologically male.

Brigitte Macron initially encountered her now-husband when she worked as an educator at his secondary school.

The pair entered into matrimony in 2007, when the future French president was 29 and she was 54.